The morning after
by suomibeta
Summary: Beckett woke up. For a second she was afraid it all could be nothing but a dream, but them she felt his smell and felt warm and safe and complete. She couldn't love him more. One-shot post Always story. I might need to change it to M later.


_She was falling and he saved her. He pushed her against the door and kissed her mouth, her neck, her scar. And he saved her. He lay down and pulled her above him, holding her, kissing her. Oh, he saved her. And all her world was falling apart but it didn't matter, he loves her. And all she wants is him._

She woke up. For a second she was afraid it all could be nothing but a dream, but them she felt his smell and felt warm and safe and complete. She opened her eyes and just look at him, all handsomely smiling in his sleep, moving slowly as he breathed. She couldn't love him more.

After lightly pressing a kiss on his lips, Kate got off the bed and tried to find her clothes in the dark room. What if Alexis or Martha were at home? She just put her underwear and his shirt and sneaked outside his room. It seemed nobody was home yet. Thank God!Not that she wanted it to be a secret, actually she felt like screaming to the whole wide world that she was his, but she wanted to be with him, just with him, and forget everything and everybody else for at least a while. But now she could just watch him sleep and wait him to wake up.

How stupid she has been and for how long! Why did she build all those walls? Why did she wait? Why didn't she just tell him she loved him too and let him help her to heal? She has been in love with him for so long … _God, I didn't even tell him how much I love him._ Now she needed him to know, she needed to show him how grateful she was for staying at her side, waiting for her, even for trying to protect her. _I almost die without really kissing you, my love_.

She went to the kitchen and made them some coffee and a few pancakes. It felt incredibly good to search in his cabinet doors for ingredients and utensils, to cook for him and arrange the tray. Ryan sure would love to hear about it again, it really was too domestic! The precinct… She gasped a little, then just decided to let it go.

Kate turns on the light of the room and reaches out for him, putting the tray on the headboard. Then she sits in the bed right next to him and starts to give him little kisses in his forehead, nose and mouth. "Good morning, my heart!"

He cups her chin in his hand, caressing her lips with his fingers. "For a minute I though you'd panicked out and left… I'm so glad you're still here."

She bit his fingertip in amusement, "I'm not going to panic. I was making breakfast. And… I've brought you coffee, Castle", she signed and ducked her head, "Rick, I've brought you coffee so I can see a smile on your face because you're the most remarkable person, the most incredible man I ever met." He opened his mouth to speak but she didn't let him to. "And, yes, I'm almost quoting you because I couldn't forget what you've said." Her voice was just a whisper now, she tried not to cry. "I regret really, really hard I didn't let all my anger just go away then, because it meant everything, it means everything to me and I should have said it, I know how much I hurted you and…"

"I love you, Kate."

They both kept the silence for a moment while Castle dried her tears with his hand. She turned her head to kiss it before he could retreat it back.

"Kate, I lo…"

She put her fingertips in his mouth, looking deep into his eyes and softly shaking her head.

"No, it's… It's my turn. You've always made it clear you loved me, or at least how much you have always cared about me. But I… I'm so sorry I was so scared I couldn't admit my feelings even to myself. I know you're here, I've always known. You are my best friend, my solid ground. You're my love, Castle. I love you. I'm in love with you for so long I can't even tell. But I need you to hear it from my mouth: I love you too."

He put his hands around her neck and gently pushed her closer, kissing her passionately. She chilled when she felt his tongue again, and returned the kiss, caressing his chest and shoulders. Then she started moving, kissing his cheek, and then his neck, and then his ears.

"I love you."

He grabbed her hair with one hand and held her closer with the other, lightly scratching her back with his nails. She lay on him, softly biting his ear lobe and then kissing his neck even harder, almost desperately.

"I love you." They didn't even know who was saying it anymore. And it didn't matter.

Beckett was still wearing the chain with her mother's ring, so when Rick raised his head to kiss her scar, he ended up kissing it too. For a moment he wondered if it made her feel sad or awkward, but she just sat beside him, looking at him and feeling she was complete again, as if the part of her that had been missing was finally back to its place. She opened the chain and pulled it off, took the ring in her hands and stared it for a while.

"Here." She said, putting the ring in Castle's hand. "It's yours, I'm not holding it anymore."

He sat, covering himself with the sheets. "Kate, don't."

"It's ok. It really is. I guess I can finally make peace with it now. I can move on."

"Kate…"

"It's alright, Castle. You can give it back to me someday… If you want to, I mean… When we are ready… Or not, I don't know!" They laughed.

"Are you proposing, Katherine Beckett?"

"No! Well, not yet!" She kissed his fingers and they laughed again. "I'm just saying that I'm finally where I wanted to be, I am 100% in this relationship and, God, I love you Castle! You can't imagine how good it feels to be able to say this!"

"You can't imagine how good it feels to hear it."

_"_Oh, I can." She said, trying to give him a blank face but barely hiding her amusement while looking down at the sheets as he placed her mother's ring on the tray.

He half-smiled and nodded naught and shamelessly. "Oh, yeah, I'm always ready! Do you want to make out again?"

"Always!"

"Can you ask Gates the morning out?"

She hesitated a moment, thinking on how to tell him.

"I don't need to go to the precinct today…"

"Did you take the day off?"

"I've resigned, Castle…"

"Wait, what? Why?"

She looked at him helplessly. "Please, let's not talk about it, let's just stay together and enjoy this, please."

"But, Kate…"

"Please. I promise to explain it all tomorrow, but let's take at least today just for us. Don't drag me there."

He took her on his arms again. "Whatever you want, my heart." _He would do anything for her_.

He got off the bed, took Kate's ring from the tray, opened his wardrobe and took a watch off its case, putting her ring inside it.

"I promise I'll find a better place for it later." And, coming back to bed, added "But now I want eat the breakfast a gorgeous lady cooked for me."

"The coffee is already cold…"

"It doesn't matter." _Nothing matters_.

She placed the tray between them and, although they didn't drink the coffee, they ate the pancakes together. Sometimes they would give some small pieces in each other's mouth, and they laughed, from the joy they were feeling and the awkwardness of that moment. And they knew it would soon become familiar, they would share the bed and meals and baths and thousands of hundreds of moments like this. And knowing it made them even happier.

* * *

**Reality is kinda knocking on my door and I can't write right now. I'm definitively turning it to an M-fic because although I want to keep Always' sweet, romantic tone, I fell this would be their natural morning after. I guess the fic will be finish by the end of the week.**

**A VERY BIG THANK YOU for all you guys who are reviewing and favoriting and story-alerting this, it's my first fic after 5-6 years (and my first one in English) and I was really surprised when I received all those alertings. You guys are awesome and you've made my day! **


End file.
